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PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 
AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 


THE  MEETING  OF  MAY  lo,  1922 


$'  ■' 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 
AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

THE  MEETING  OF  MAY  lo,  1922 

SPEAKERS 

Robert  W.  de  Forest 
Charles  D.  Norton 
Herbert  Hoover 
John  J.  Carty 
Lillian  D.  Wald 
Elihu  Root 
Charles  Dana  Gibson 
Mrs.  August  Belmont 

COMMITTEE 

Charles  D.  Norton,  Chairman 
Robert  W.  de  Forest  John  M.  Glenn 

Frederic  A.  Delano  Dwight  W.  Morrow 

Frank  L.  Polk 

Frederick  P.  Keppel,  Secretary 
Flavel  Shurtleff,  Asst.  Secretary 


130  East  Twenty-second  Street 
New  York 


^ 


J^'^'^ 


The  Call  for  the  Meeting 


T, 


HE  problems  created  by  the  concentration  of  population  in  and 
about  the  City  of  New  York  are  growing  daily  in  seriousness  and  are 
engaging  the  attention  of  an  increasing  number  of  our  citizens.  The 
Trustees  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  organized  for  the  improve- 
ment of  social  and  living  conditions,  have  appointed  to  consider  the 
subject,  a  Committee  consisting  of  Charles  D.  Norton,  Chairman, 
Robert  W.  de  Forest,  Frederic  A.  Delano,  John  M.  Glenn, 
DwiGHT  W.  Morrow  and  Frank  L.  Polk.  But  for  his  untimely 
death,  Alfred  T.  White,  who  was  actively  interested,  would  also 
have  been  a  member.  Frederick  P.  Keppel  has  been  named  as  secre- 
tary and  Flavel  Shurtleff  as  assistant  secretary  of  this  Committee. 

Substantial  progress  has  already  been  made  in  the  organization 
of  a  series  of  basic  studies  looking  forward  to  the  formulation  and 
promotion,  in  cooperation  with  all  concerned,  of  a  regional  Plan  of 
New  York  and  its  Environs.  It  is  now  desired  to  hold  an  informal 
conference  of  those  who  are  naturally  interested,  the  public  officials, 
architects,  engineers,  artists,  city  planning  experts  and  other  public- 
spirited  men  and  women  who  in  their  own  special  fields  and  in  their 
own  localities  are  already  facing  these  problems.  After  consultation 
with  Elihu  Root,  Herbert  Hoover,  Alfred  E.  Smith  and  a 
number  of  others  who  have  already  promised  their  cooperation,  a 
meeting  at  which  a  preliminary  report  will  be  presented  and  discussed 
has  been  arranged  for  8:15  p.m.,  May  10,192a,  in  the  auditorium  of 
the  Engineering  Societies  Building,  ^^  West  39th  Street.  You  are 
cordially  invited  to  attend  this  meeting. 

Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  let  me  know  by  a  reply  on  the  en- 
closed card  addressed  to  130  East  22nd  Street,  whether  we  may  count 
upon  your  presence  on  this  occasion,  which  we  trust  will  prove  to  be 
the  inaugural  step  in  a  movement  of  far-reaching  importance  for  our 
community?  ^^  r»  //  o  r"  ;     • 

ir  US  tees  Russell  o  age  Foundation 

Robert  W.  de  Forest,  President 
Frederic  A.  Delano     Charles  D,  Norton 
John  H.  P'inlev  Gertrude  S.  Rice 

John  M.Glenn  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler 

Dwight  W.  Morrow     H  ei.en  (iould  Shepard 


The  Meeting  of  May  lo,  1922 

Robert  W.  de  Forest,  Presiding^  said: 

THE  purpose  of  this  meeting  is  to  tell  those  whom  we 
have  invited  to  meet  with  us  this  evening  what  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  is  doing  to  develop  a  com- 
prehensive regional  plan  of  New  York  and  its  vicinity,  and  to 
invite  their  cooperation. 

For  more  than  a  year  the  Sage  Foundation  has  given  serious 
consideration  to  this  subject.  In  doing  so  it  has  sought  and  ob- 
tained, confidentially,  suggestions  and  advice  from  a  number  of 
people.  It  now  wishes  to  broaden  the  circle  of  its  advisers. 
Moreover,  this  project  of  the  Foundation  is  already  confidentially 
known  to  so  many  that  it  must  inevitably  soon  become  public. 
Its  scope  should  be  authoritatively  declared,  so  as  to  avoid  any 
possible  misapprehension. 

This  authoritative  declaration  will  be  made  by  Mr.  Charles 
D.  Norton,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Plan  of  New  York 
and  Its  Environs.  I  shall  not  duplicate  or  qualify  his  announce- 
ment. I  shall  confine  what  I  say  by  way  of  introduction  to  an- 
swering one  or  two  questions  that  may  at  once  suggest  themselves 
to  this  audience,  and  by  emphasizing  one  or  two  parts  of  our 
program. 

The  first  question  you  may  instinctively  ask  is  whether  it  is 
not  a  project  far  beyond  the  resources  of  the  Foundation. 
Unquestionably  it  is,  if  the  Foundation  alone  is  expected  to 
carry  this  project  to  fruition.  All  that  the  Foundation  can  wisely 
do  is  to  outhne  an  initial  plan  in  reliance  on  the  cooperation  of 
others  to  perfect  it  and  carry  it  out. 


54S291? 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 


Another  question  which  may  be  properly  asked  is  whether  any 
such  plan  can  be  carried  out  without  the  action  of  public  au- 
thorities, city  and  state,  and  this  question  may  lead  to  another 
as  to  why  some  of  the  public  officials,  of  at  least  the  larger  cities 
concerned,  should  not  be  members  of  any  committee  on  this 
subject.  Unquestionably,  no  such  plan  can  be  carried  out  except 
by  and  through  the  public  authorities,  but  the  Foundation  has 
thought  it  unfair  to  these  authorities  to  involve  them  in  a  plan 
at  the  present  time.  Ultimately  any  plan  must  be  presented  to 
these  authorities  for  modification,  acceptance  or  rejection. 
These  authorities  to  perform  their  proper  functions  as  represent- 
ing the  people  should  be  left  at  this  initial  stage  in  an  absolutely 
judicial  position.  They  should  not  be  now  embarrassed  by  be- 
ing asked  to  take  any  leading  part,  nor  should  the  Foundation 
and  its  advisers  be  now  embarrassed  by  any  personal  or  political 
considerations. 

A  few  words  as  to  emphasis:  To  most  people  a  City  Plan  suggests 
nothing  more  than  streets,  open  spaces  and  buildings,  and  is  per- 
haps limited  to  what  may  be  called  the  "city  beautiful."  While 
the  project  of  the  Sage  Foundation  unquestionably  includes 
streets,  open  spaces  and  buildings,  and  would  not  ignore  the 
element  o-f  beauty,  its  emphasis  will  be  laid  according  to  the 
Foundation's  charter  on  "The  Improvement  of  Social  and 
Living  Conditions."  It  is  that  plan  which  makes  the  city  a  better 
place  to  live  in  and  a  better  place  to  work  in  that  most  interests 
the  Sage  Foundation. 

The  project  of  the  Foundation,  while  not  ignoring  congested 
Manhattan  and  almost  equally  congested  Brooklyn,  involves 
a  regional  Plan  of  New  York  and  includes  not  only  Greater  New 
York  but  its  Environs.  With  present  methods  of  transportation, 
the  real  New  York  includes  every  locality  within  easy  commuting 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

or  motor  distance  and  embraces  parts  of  the  states  of  New 
Jersey  and  Connecticut.  It  is  perhaps  in  these  environs  that 
city  planning  has  its  greatest  opportunity. 

Announcement  of  project^  by  Charles  D.  Norton: 

The  present  street  plan  of  Manhattan  Island  was  designed  by 
Commissioners  Gouverneur  Morris,  Simeon  DeWitt  and  John 
Rutherford  in  1811,  when  New  York  had  a  population  of  less 
than  90,000. 

In  the  report  of  the  18 11  Commission  we  find  the  following: 

"*  *  *  It  may  be  a  subject  oj  merriment  that  the  commissioners  have  provided 
space  for  a  greater  population  than  is  collected  at  any  spot  on  this  side  of 
China.  *  *  *  It  is  not  improbable  that  considerable  numbers  may  be  collected 
atllaerlem  before  the  high  hills  to  the  southward  of  it  shall  be  built  upon  as  a 
city.,  and  it  is  improbable  that  {for  centuries  to  come)  the  grounds  north  of 
Haerlem  flat  will  be  covered  with  houses.  *  *  * 

"It  may  be  matter  of  surprise  that  so  few  vacant  spaces  have  been  left  and 
those  so  small;  for  the  benefit  of  fresh  air  and  consequent  preservation  of  health. 
Certainly  if  the  City  of  New  York  were  destined  to  stand  on  the  side  of  a 
small  stream  such  as  the  Seine  or  the  Thames ,  a  great  number  of  ample  places 
might  be  needful;  but  those  large  arms  of  the  sea  which  embrace  Manhattan 
Island  render  its  situation.,  in  regard  to  health  and  pleasure ^  as  well  as  to  con- 
venience of  commerce^  peculiarly  felicitous;  when  therefore^  from  the  same 
causes.,  the  price  of  land  is  so  uncom?nonly  great^  it  seemed  proper  to  admit  the 
principles  of  economy  to  greater  influence  than  might.,  under  circumstances  of  a 
different  kind, have  consisted  with  the  dictates  of  prudence  and  the  sense  of  duty." 

These  "principles  of  economy"  applied  to  Manhattan  Island  in 
181 1  have  yielded  their  logical  and  disastrous  harvest  of  congestion 
and  confusion  in  1922.  Embraced  by  "those  large  arms  of  the  sea,"- 
rigidly  bound  to  a  street  scheme  designed  in  181 1,  Manhattan  has 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

leaped  into  the  air;  it  has  tunneled  and  bridged  the  rivers;  it  has 
thrust  out  its  transportation  arms  until  men  and  women  travel  fifty 
miles  to  their  daily  labor  in  the  city;  until  the  great  area  of  which 
Manhattan  is  the  center  is  in  1922  the  home  of  no  less  than  nine 
millions  of  people.  Deep-seated  structural  defects  leave  masses  of 
this  population  in  an  environment  ill  suited  for  human  happiness 
and  welfare.  Traffic  in  existing  streets  is  congested  to  the  point 
where  it  places  intolerable  burdens  upon  commerce  and  endangers 
human  life.  Although  the  public,  the  liberal  press,  the  engineering 
and  artistic  professions  have  repeatedly  voiced  the  need,  there  exists 
no  comprehensive  regional  Plan  of  New  York  and  its  wide  Environs. 
Many  admirable  local  plans  have  been  developed,  but  no  inspiriting 
vision  of  the  far  future  guides  us  in  our  present  expenditures  of 
money  and  of  civic  effort.  Without  a  guiding  Plan,  what  of  New 
York  one  hundred  years  hence  ?  Momentous  decisions  are  being  con- 
stantly made,  decisions  that  are  local,  piecemeal  and  unrelated  to 
the  larger  trends.  The  time  has  come  for  unified  planning  in  the 
interest  of  the  whole  people. 

Unhampered  by  the  fears  of  the  Commissioners  of  181 1,  lest  their 
plans  become  "subject  of  merriment"  if  too  large  an  area  were 
included,  all  of  the  communities  in  which  people  make  their 
homes  who  gain  their  daily  livelihood  in  New  York,  from  the  New 
Jersey  shore,  through  Princeton,  to  West  Point,  and  Bridgeport, 
and  including  all  of  Long  Island,  will  recognize  their  common  inter- 
est in  comprehensive  planning;  will  share  a  common  wish  to  make 
of  New  York  and  its  Environs  a  better  place  in  which  to  work  and  to 
live.  Precisely  as  a  family  rejoices  in  the  development  and  embellish- 
ment of  its  home,  so  our  citizens  and  their  children's  children  will 
watch  with  deepest  satisfaction  the  gradual  development  of  their 
fair  Estate,  of  New  York  and  its  Environs,  in  accordance  with  some 
cherished   Plan. 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

City  Planning  requires  imagination,  it  requires  vision;  it  requires 
a  long  continuing  study  of  facts,  and  it  costs  a  substantial  sum  of 
money.  There  is  no  public  treasury  which  can  be  drawn  upon  to 
create  such  a  Plan,  for  no  one  governmental  agency  has  jurisdiction 
over  all  of  that  area  which  includes  portions  of  three  states  and  many 
municipalities. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  organized  for  the 
improvement  of  social  and  living  conditions — ^mindful  of  the  explicit 
request  in  Mrs.  Sage's  deed  of  gift,  that  a  portion  of  the  income  be 
applied  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  New  York  City  and  vicinity,  and 
desiring  to  serve  the  public  interest — have  made  an  appropriation 
which,  together  with  a  large  number  of  contributions  from  interested 
citizens,  will  provide  a  sum  sufficient  to  meet  the  necessary  expense  of 
developing  a  comprehensive  regional  Plan  of  New  York  and  its 
Environs.  They  have  appointed  a  Committee  consisting  of  Charles 
D.  Norton,  Chairman,  Robert  W.  de  Forest,  Frederic  A.  De- 
lano, John  M.  Glenn,  DwightW.  Morrow  and  Frank  L.  Polk, 
to  organize  the  work  and  to  that  end  to  cooperate  with  groups 
of  citizens  and  public  officials  in  the  boroughs,  municipalities 
and  local  communities  throughout  the  whole  area. 

But  for  his  untimely  death,  Alfred  T.  White,  who  was  actively  in- 
terested in  the  project,  would  have  been  a  member  of  the  Committee. 

Avoiding  duplication  of  effort,  the  Committee  propose  to  ap- 
proach their  difficult  problem  by  first  organizing  a  series  of  prelimi- 
nary inquiries  with  a  view  to  developing  and  recording  those  basic 
facts  and  fundamental  considerations  which  are  requisite  to  inform 
public  opinion  and  to  guide  the  future  city  planners.  There  will  be 
organized  at  least  four  such  inquiries,  as  follows : 

I.  Economic  and  Industrial:  An  analysis  of  the  fundamental 
reasons  for  the  existence  of  this  great  center  of  industry  and  com- 
merce, its  potentialities  and  the  sound  limitations  on  its  future 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

development;  an  inquiry  into  economic  and  occupational  activities, 
those  that  create  populous  districts  and  those  that  follow  population ; 
a  study  of  the  land  within  the  area,  its  use  and  taxation. 

2.  Physical:  The  mapping  of  existing  topographical  and  other 
physical  conditions,  including  railway  and  water  transportation, 
harbor,  "free  port"  and  terminal  facilities,  bridges,  ferries,  main 
highways,  park  and  recreation  spaces,  public  and  quasi-public  build- 
ings, and  density  and  distribution  of  day  and  night  population;  the 
compiling  of  existing  local  schemes  for  improvement. 

3.  Legal:  A  study  of  existing  law  as  it  controls  or  affects  a  Plan 
for  the  area  which  includes  portions  of  three  states;  an  analysis  of 
the  law  of  zoning,  excess  condemnation,  stabilization  of  official  city 
maps,  shore  rights  and  land  under  water,  and  other  subjects  relat- 
ing to  City  Planning. 

4.  Social  and  Living  Conditions:  Studies  designed  to  bring  to 
the  attention  of  the  city  planners  those  factors  which  have  direct 
bearing  upon  human  values  and  social  welfare,  and  make  for  health- 
ful and  satisfactory  housing  and  home  surroundings,  efficient  work 
and  wholesome  leisure  time. 

After  these  inquiries  have  laid  solid  foundations  upon  which  to 
base  sound  planning,  the  man,  or  the  group  of  men,  will  be  found 
to  plan  for  New  York  and  its  Environs  as  George  Washington  and 
Pierre  I'Enfant  planned  for  Washington,  or  Burnham  and  Bennett 
and  their  committees  of  business  men  planned  for  Chicago;  to  create 
a  Plan  which,  with  wide  public  participation  and  approval,  shall 
embody  and  record  the  best  thought  of  our  engineers,  our  artists 
and  architects,  our  public  servants,  our  social  workers  and  econo- 
mists, and  far-seeing  business  men. 

Plans,  when  sufficiently  advanced,  will  be  submitted  to  the  public 
at  large  for  study  and  criticism  through  groups  of  citizens  represent- 
ative of  each  community  in  the  great  area  involved.  They  will  be 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

offered  in  no  arbitrary  spirit,  but  rather  in  the  faith  that  the  public 
will  welcome  comprehensive  planning,  and  will  endeavor  through 
the  proper  public  authorities  and  citizen  organizations  to  realize  to 
the  utmost,  as  the  decades  pass,  the  social,  the  industrial,  the  com- 
mercial and  the  artistic  values  of  this  great  world  capital  and  port. 

The  Committee  will  propose  no  abnormal  expansion  of  public  ex- 
penditure. With  a  wisely  conceived  Plan  public  funds  which  will  be 
expended  in  any  event  can  be  directed  into  projects  of  permanent 
constructive  value;  without  a  Plan  millions  are  likely  to  be  wasted  in 
desultory  or  ill-considered  public  works. 

This  project  is  presented  for  the  first  time  to  this  representative 
conference  of  public  officials,  engineers,  architects,  artists  and  other 
public-spirited  citizens,  for  here  it  is  that  we  must  find  the  love  of 
order  and  of  beauty,  the  lofty  vision,  and  the  skilled  hands  which 
shall  depict  for  a  vast  population  the  dramatic  and  stirring  possi- 
bilities of  the  centuries  to  come. 

Mr.  Norton  added: 

The  Committee  is  faced  with  this  dilemma.  Desiring  the  co- 
operation of  many  people  in  many  communities,  early  and  frank 
announcement  of  the  project  is  necessary;  but  the  method  chosen 
to  approach  the  problem,  while  sound  and  original  in  planning 
ventures,  is  necessarily  slow  and  laborious.  Enlisting  as  we  do 
the  ablest  men  and  women,  who  are  always  the  busiest  people, 
these  inquiries  cannot  be  hastened. 

There  is  danger  lest  the  mere  announcement  of  the  project 
arouse  too  great  expectations  of  immediate  results,  expectations 
which  at  best  cannot  be  realized  until  after  much  study  and  the 
lapse  of  considerable  time. 

It  is,  however,  perfectly  fair  to  ask  what  the  Committee  has 
done  and  in  detail  how  they  propose  to  proceed. 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

For  more  than  a  year  the  Physical  Survey  has  been  under  way. 
With  a  staff  of  engineers  assisting  him,  Nelson  P.  Lewis,  former 
Chief  Engineer,  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment,  City 
of  New  York,  and  former  President  of  the  National  City  Plan- 
ning Conference,  has  been  studying  the  density  and  trends  of 
population,  mapping  the  whole  area  and  learning  what  public 
officials  and  engineers  are  doing,  or  can  do,  in  the  development  of 
forest  reserves,  parks,  playgrounds  as  well  as  in  the  development 
of  railroad,  port,  harbor  and  transit  facilities.  Mr.  Lewis  has  the 
aid  and  advice  among  others  of  D.  L.  Turner,  B.  F.  Cresson,  Jr., 
Jay  Downer,  Morris  R.  Sherrerd,  Frederic  Law  Olmsted  and 
George  C.  Whipple. 

Incidentally,  with  the  aid  of  a  special  group  including  William 
Adams  Delano,  Jules  Guerin,  Isaiah  Bowman,  George  D.  Pratt 
and  Sherman  Fairchild,  Mr.  Lewis  will  endeavor  to  develop  a 
new  type  of  map  for  city  planners,  in  which  the  painter  with  his 
mastery  of  arrangement  and  of  color,  will  be  guided  by  the  ac- 
curate contours  of  the  engineer  and  the  new  viewpoint  of  the 
aerial  photographer. 

The  Legal  Inquiry  has  been  under  way  for  six  months  under  the 
direction  of  Edward  M.  Bassett,  former  Chairman,  Zoning  Com- 
mission of  New  York  and  present  counsel.  Zoning  Committee, 
aided  by  Frank  B.  Williams,  legal  investigator  in  city  planning, 
who  is  giving  his  entire  time.  Interesting  legal  questions  arise. 
What  planning  powers  are  lacking  in  the  various  communities? 
How  can  they  effectively  cooperate  with  each  other?  Is  the  pub- 
lic ownership  of  aqueduct,  water  supply  and  canal  lands  such 
that  future  populations  can  enjoy  them  as  open  places?  How 
far  can  zoning  be  adopted  by  areas  outside  of  cities?  To  what 
extent  can  ungranted  foreshore  and  land  under  water,  now  owned 
by  the  states,  be  preserved  for  future  recreational  use?   How  can 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

official  highway  and  park  layouts,  especially  in  sparsely  populated 
districts,  be  created  and  stabilized?  Mr.  Bassett's  advisers  in- 
clude James  Byrne,  President,  Association  of  the  Bar  of  the  City 
of  New  York,  Charles  E.  Hughes,  Julius  Henry  Cohen,  Isaac  N. 
Mills,  and  Chancellor  James  F.  Fielder  of  New  Jersey. 

The  Social  and  Living  Conditions  Survey  naturally  divides 
into  several  heads:  among  them  I  will  mention  public  health; 
housing;  leisure  time  and  recreation  facilities;  the  environment 
of  hospitals  and  custodial  institutions.  Shelby  M.  Harrison, 
Director  of  Surveys,  Sage  Foundation,  is  giving  his  entire  time 
to  the  organization  of  this  work.  One  typical  subdivision,  that  of 
public  health,  has  been  placed  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Her- 
mann M.  Biggs,  aided  by  a  group  of  authorities  including  among 
others  Dr.  George  David  Stewart,  President,  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine, Dr.  Walter  B.  James,  Dr.  Josephine  Baker,  Dr.  Thomas  W. 
Salmon,  Miss  Clara  D.  Noyes,  Dr.  Winford  Smith  and  Dr. 
William  H.  Welch  of  Johns  Hopkins. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  more  in  illustration  of  our  method. 
Never  before,  I  believe,  has  a  City  Plan  been  approached  in  just 
this  deliberate  way:  preceded  by  inquiries  so  comprehensive. 
The  results  of  these  inquiries  will  be  published  from  time  to 
time — not  voluminous  reports  covering  the  whole  range  of  hu- 
man knowledge  on  each  subject — but  authoritative,  carefully 
edited  and,  we  hope,  brief  reports,  strictly  limited  to  those  phases 
of  each  subject  of  vital  concern  to  city  planners. 

As  Executive  Secretary,  the  Committee  has  enlisted  Frederick 
P.  Keppel,  former  Dean  of  Columbia  College,  and  former  As- 
sistant Secretary  of  War.  Mr.  Keppel  will  leave  his  present 
post  with  the  International  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Paris 
and  move  to  New  York  in  September,  and  will  be  assisted  by 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

Flavel  Shurtleff,  Secretary  of  the  National  Conference  on  City 
Planning,  with  offices  in  the  Sage  Foundation  Building. 

The  Committee  will  include  among  its  general  counselors 
and  advisers  such  citizens  as  Elihu  Root,  Alfred  E.  Smith, 
Herbert  Hoover,  A.  C.  Bedford,  Irving  T.  Bush,  William  Fellowes 
Morgan,  Frederick  B.  Pratt,  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Mrs.  Otto 
Wittpen,Hugh  Frayne,  Virginia  Gildersleeve,  Morgan  J.  O'Brien, 
Amey  Aldrich,  John  J.  Carty,  Frances  Perkins,  Lawson  Purdy, 
Mary  E.  Dreier,  Felix  Warburg,  Darwin  P.  Kingsley  and 
Lillian  D.  Wald.  Instantly  there  come  to  mind  the  names  of 
public  officials  whom  we  would  wish  to  have  on  any  list  of 
advisers.  Mr.  de  Forest  has,  however,  well  stated  our  desire 
not  to  embarrass  or  involve  them,  at  this  juncture,  in  what  is 
essentially  a  private  venture  in  cooperation,  engaged  in  by  pri- 
vate citizens  who  have  become  deeply  interested  in  the  high 
cost  of  not  planning.  But  public  officials  too  are  citizens  and 
neighbors  and  friends,  and  as  such  we  shall  endeavor  to  keep 
them  fully  informed  of  our  activities  and  freely  seek  their  com- 
ment and  advice. 

Planning  for  so  wide  an  area  and  on  so  large  a  scale  requires 
group  judgment.  The  group  certainly  will  include  the  Archi- 
tect, the  Engineer,  the  Lawyer,  the  Painter,  the  Sculptor,  the 
Landscape  Architect,  the  Social  Worker,  the  Economist  and 
the  Business  Man.  And  the  work  itself  will  develop  and  dis- 
cover the  man,  the  Planner,  to  lead  that  group.  He  is  here,  the 
spiritual  descendant  of  Pierre  L'Enfant,  of  Charles  McKim,  of 
Daniel  Burnham.  We  shall  find  him  and  that  group  will  depict 
for  us  the  New  York  of  a  hundred  years  hence,  a  city  great  not 
merely  in  numbers,  but  great  in  that  all  its  citizens,  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  strong  and  the  weak,  can  take  just  pride  in  its  power 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

and  its  beauty,  can  share  in  those  durable  satisfactions  of  Hfe 
which  are  the  natural  outgrowth  of  orderly  thinking  and  wise 
planning. 

Herbert  Hoover: 

The  action  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  in 
providing  for  the  survey  by  engineers  and  other  experts  of  the 
economic  and  social  situation,  and  the  preparation  of  a  compre- 
hensive Plan  for  the  development  of  New  York  City  and  its  En- 
virons deserves  the  highest  commendation. 

The  enormous  losses  in  human  happiness  and  in  money  which 
have  resulted  from  lack  of  city  plans  which  take  into  account  the 
conditions  of  modern  life,  need  little  proof.  The  lack  of  adequate 
open  spaces,  of  playgrounds  and  parks,  the  congestion  of  streets, 
the  misery  of  tenement  life  and  its  repercussions  upon  each  new 
generation,  are  an  untold  charge  against  our  American  life. 
Our  cities  do  not  produce  their  full  contribution  to  the  sinews 
of  American  life  and  national  character.  The  moral  and  social 
issues  can  only  be  solved  by  a  new  conception  of  city  building. 

The  great  growth  of  industry  since  New  York  was  originally 
planned  presents  a  host  of  new  problems.  The  cost  of  distri- 
bution of  necessities  within  the  boundaries  of  the  city  increases 
each  year  until  today  the  congestion,  the  inadequate  system  of 
terminals  of  transportation  and  commodity  distribution  gener- 
ally tax  New  York  with  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent  upon  the  cost 
of  living  above  more  adequately  served  centers. 

Many  of  our  industries  are  seasonal.  If  we  are  to  secure  high 
living  standards  and  to  gain  in  national  productivity,  these  in- 
dustries must  be  so  interlocked  as  to  give  more  continuous  em- 
ployment.   The  fact  that  New  York  has  at  all  times  the  largest 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

proportion  of  unemployment  of  any  of  our  cities  is  due  partially 
to  this  ill  adjustment. 

New  York  is  the  gateway  of  Europe  into  the  United  States, 
and  the  dumping  of  great  hordes  of  people  into  our  slums  is  a 
poor  introduction  to  Americanization. 

One  part  of  such  a  plan  must  be  a  realization  of  each  economic 
group  in  the  community  as  to  its  function  to  the  whole  great 
community  of  which  it  is  a  part.  With  this  in  mind,  residential 
districts  whose  interests  center  largely  around  low  cost  of  living 
and  educational  and  recreational  facilities  would  see  their 
interests  in  better  means  of  distribution  and  the  development 
of  public  utilities.  The  manufacturing  districts  must  find  not 
only  better  aligned  transportation  but  coordination  to  resi- 
dential areas  which  can  be  developed  upon  human  lines. 

The  survey  can  help  arouse  a  consciousness  of  its  needs  on  the 
part  of  each  community  and  group  within  the  whole  territory. 
The  cooperation  of  all  groups  must  be  enlisted  if  a  workable 
plan  is  to  be  evolved.  This  is  vital  in  surmounting  the  legal 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  executing  such  a  plan. 

The  vision  of  the  region  around  New  York  as  a  well  planned 
location  of  millions  of  happy  homes  and  a  better  working  center 
of  millions  of  men  and  women  grasps  the  imagination.  A  definite 
plan  for  its  accomplishment  may  be  only  an  ideal.  But  a  people 
without  ideals  degenerates — one  with  practical  ideals  is  already 
upon  the  road  to  attain  them. 

Lillian  D.  Wald  : 

This  seems  to  me  a  most  important  first  step  towards  the  most 
important  undertaking  that  I  have  heard  of  for  many  years.  I 
believe  that  if  it  is  carried  out  in  logical  sequence  it  will  add 
greatly  to  the  happiness  of  the  people  of  New  York. 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

It  links  a  practical,  workable  plan  with  the  vision  of  a  city- 
conceived  in  understanding  of  the  needs  of  many  people,  their 
homes  and  those  matters  most  closely  related  to  their  daily  life. 

It  rouses  within  me  a  hope  that  those  who  come  after  may  profit 
by  this  responsibility  for  them  and  our  remorse  for  past  omis- 
sions. I  am  enthusiastic  because  I  see  the  possibility  of  realizing 
a  hope  that  lies  deep  in  the  hearts  of  all  lovers  of  mankind,  and 
particularly  the  lovers  of  little  children — that  it  is  possible  to 
have  a  city  beautiful,  and  that  ugliness  is  entirely  unnecessary. 

I  have  felt  some  of  that  chagrin  of  which  Secretary  Hoover 
speaks -.when  the  stranger  comes  to  America,  often  with  great 
ideals,  he  meets  first  the  ugly,  commercialized,  unsocial — often 
anti-social — section  of  the  city  into  which  he  moves.  I  fully  under- 
stand that  even  a  perfectly  planned  metropolitan  area  will  not 
bring  about  the  millenium;  but  organized,  cooperative  plans  that 
bring  people  together,  that  comprehend  the  interrelationship  of 
home  and  work,  recreation  and  education,  will  make  impossible 
the  further  growth  of  segregated,  ugly  quarters  for  racial  groups 
or  economic  classes. 

There  is  bound  to  develop  among  those  entrusted  with  the 
plans,  and  the  public  through  them,  the  conviction  that  no  city 
is  really  dignified  unless  there  is  within  it  a  consciousness  that 
children  can  be  brought  up  safely  only  if  the  homes  are  fit  for 
children  to  be  brought  up  in.  And  I  see  the  experts  in  various 
phases  of  city  life  coming  together  for  this  great  plan,  weighing 
and  appraising  the  elements  that  enter  into  the  home  and  the 
shopi 

As  I  sense  the  aspirations  of  anxious  parents,  I  can  say  with 
them  that  we  long  for  decent  homes,  for  wholesome  recreation, 
for  proximity  to  employment,  and  for  transportation  facilities 
that  do  not  make  the  coming  and  going  from  work  to  home  a 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

most  unpleasant  experience.  We  also  aspire  to  schools  and  play- 
grounds placed  with  a  conception  of  the  distance  that  children 
can  safely  travel.  And  we  hope  for  prohibition  of  the  ugly  com- 
mercialized houses  which  are  only  too  flatteringly  called  "homes." 
A  great  plan  that  has  the  advantage  of  the  counsel  of  experts  in 
every  field — not  working  as  specialists  but  working  together  for 
the  city  made  up  of  homes — will  establish  standards,  and  the 
necessary  provisions  and  prohibitions  will  naturally  follow. 

Imagination  soars  to  the  ultimate  possibilities  of  not  only  a 
physically  planned  city,  but  development  of  other  measures  that 
are  akin  to  it.  I  see,  for  instance  (perhaps  because  the  problem 
of  unemployment  touches  us  now,  and  we  have  not  forgotten  that 
it  has  been  called  a  "recurring  cycle"),  that  a  great  city  plan  could 
be  made  available  for  giving  employment  for  public  works  during 
periods  of  industrial  idleness  as  a  part  of  the  thought-out  plan, 
and  not  promoted  in  times  of  excitement  and  without  long  and 
adequate  study. 

I  see  also  in  the  plan,  lastly  but  by  no  means  of  least  con- 
sequence, recognition  of  the  need  of  beauty;  a  need  that  exists, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  in  the  souls  of  people,  even 
the  least.  Looking  up  Henry  Street,  the  Woolworth  Building  can 
be  seen  in  the  distance.  One  of  our  children  not  long  since, 
gazing  westward,  saw  the  beautiful  building  in  the  sunset  light 
and,  all  unconsciously  comparing  that  shining  vision  with  the 
ugly,  overcrowded,  unclean,  garbage-decorated  houses  about  her, 
and  obviously  awed  by  the  sight,  exclaimed  "Does  God  live 
there?" 

We  have  beauty  in  the  city — perhaps  more  than  we  deserve, 
because  so  much  of  it  has  either  been  accidental  or  due  to  the  con- 
ception of  an  individual;  but  on  the  whole,  beauty  has  not  touched 
our  homes,  our  industrial  streets  or  our  factories;  not,  I  believe, 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

through  any  prejudice  against  beauty,  even  for  these  functions 
and  purposes  of  the  city,  but  because  the  city,  Hke  Topsy,  grew 
up,  and  a  planless  city  inevitably  becomes  a  city  of  specialization, 
not  a  coordinated  social  structure. 


John  J.  Carty  : 

For  more  than  thirty  years,  I  have  been  concerned  as  an  en- 
gineer in  a  responsible  way  with  the  making  of  economic  surveys 
and  development  studies  forecasting  the  telephonic  development 
for  New  York  City  and  other  cities  of  the  United  States,  and  in 
the  making  of  fundamental  plans  based  upon  these  forecasts. 
These  studies  and  plans  require  special  inquiries  into  the  future 
growth,  character  and  distribution  of  population  and  business, 
and,  notwithstanding  all  of  the  sources  of  error  to  which  such 
studies  and  plans  are  obviously  subject,  they  have  proved  to  be 
of  immense  practical  value. 

A  definite,  though  broad,  fundamental  plan  for  our  city  and 
its  environs  will  make  possible  the  growth  of  an  harmonious 
system  of  urban  and  country  communities,  embodying  an  organic 
idea  making  for  unity  and  utility  and  beauty.  Thus  may  be 
avoided  the  colossal  blunders  and  incalculable  financial  losses 
due  to  an  incongruous  assemblage  of  discordant  elements  which 
would  result  from  following  a  random  policy  with  no  adequate 
and  authoritative  plan  to  guide.  Such  a  plan  eliminates  at  once 
the  costly  errors  of  inconsistency  and,  if  it  is  kept  constantly 
under  review  as  it  should  be,  it  can  be  intelligently  modified  as 
time  goes  on,  so  as  to  meet  with  a  minimum  of  difficulty  those 
unforeseen  contingencies  which  must  always  be  expected  in  every 
project  looking  far  into  the  future,  and  involving  so  many  com- 
plex and  uncertain  factors. 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

From  my  interest  in  the  making  of  telephone  plans  for  the 
future,  it  has  come  about  that  I  have  had  an  excellent  op- 
portunity of  observing  the  preliminary  work  of  the  Committee, 
and  of  becoming  acquainted  with  their  ideals  and  methods  of 
approach.  I  have  also  considered  with  much  care  the  report  of 
the  Committee  which  has  just  been  read,  relating  to  the  Plan 
of  New  York  and  Its  Environs,  and  as  the  result  of  this  I  am 
well  persuaded  that  the  project  as  outlined  is  a  sound  one.  It 
is  proposed  on  a  broad,  comprehensive  and  open-minded  basis, 
and  I  feel  sure  that  it  sets  forth  an  objective  which  it  is  practi- 
cable to  attain,  provided  that  the  great  work  of  planning  is  placed 
in  the  right  hands.  But  on  this  score  I  have  no  misgivings,  for 
nowhere  else  outside  of  New  York  and  its  Environs  could  we  so 
readily  command  the  best  thought  of  engineers,  artists,  and 
architects,  public  servants,  social  workers,  economists  and  far- 
seeing  men  of  affairs. 

I  feel  sure  that  this  project,  so  sanely  and  so  magnificently 
conceived,  will  receive  the  support  and  active  cooperation  of  all 
such  as  these,  and  that  it  will  enable  New  York  worthily  to 
fulfill  its  destiny  as  the  foremost  city  in  all  the  world. 

Elihu  Root  : 

I  have  come  here  not  to  tell  you  what  is  going  to  be  done,  but 
simply  to  express  my  warm  sympathy  with  the  Plan  and  my 
great  appreciation  of  the  labors  and  the  interest  and  the  devotion 
of  the  gentlemen  who  have  undertaken  this  work. 

For  fifty-seven  years  now  I  have  lived  on  the  gridiron  like  St. 
Lawrence,  on  that  gridiron  laid  down  upon  this  island  by  the 
commissioners  of  1811,  who  arbitrarily  laid  out  our  rectangular 
streets  up  and  down  and  across  the  island  without  any  reference 
to  the  topography  of  the  land,  and  I  have  seen  the  city  grow  from 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

less  than  a  million  to  its  present  enormous  proportions.  It  isn't 
as  pleasant  a  place  to  live  in  as  it  was.  With  the  growth  of  the 
city  has  come  great  crowding,  most  uncomfortable  crowding. 
The  conditions  under  which  young  men  and  women  get  to  and 
from  their  work  in  the  morning  and  evening  are  most  disagree- 
able, hardly  decent,  and  in  the  business  parts  of  the  city  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  get  light  and  air  and  even  steerage  way  through  the 
streets.  It  isn't  only  there;  it  is  in  parts  of  the  city  where  the 
greater  portion  of  the  population  live  that  the  conditions  are 
most  distressing.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  I  do 
not  think  one  can  obtain  a  virile  and  dominant  race  where  the 
children  have  paving  stones  between  themselves  and  the  earth. 

This  project  is  in  some  degree  to  ameliorate  those  conditions 
for  the  future.  Not  only  is  life  in  business  overcrowded  and  ham- 
pered, but  the  conditions  of  distribution  make  living  exceedingly 
expensive.  New  York  is  no  place  to  live  for  any  one  with  small 
means.  Most  extravagant  incomes  are  necessary  to  enable  any 
one  to  live  here  now  as  well  as  a  person  of  very  small  means 
can  live  in  one  of  our  smaller  towns. 

We  haven't  quite  succeeded  in  building  a  city.  Something  is 
wrong  about  it.  The  gridiron  hasn't  worked  satisfactorily.  It 
is  worth  while  to  try  to  find  out  what  the  trouble  is.  In  the  first 
place,  the  difference  between  a  very  large  collection  of  human 
beings  in  a  small  territory  and  a  small  collection  of  them,  between 
a  big  city  and  a  small  town,  is  not  so  much  a  difference  in  degree 
as  it  is  a  difference  in  kind.  When  you  pass  from  your  small  town 
to  your  big  town,  you  get  problems,  difficulties,  injurious  con- 
ditions, entirely  different  in  kind  from  those  that  exist  in  the 
small  town,  and  they  ought  to  be  dealt  with  intelligently. 

A  city  is  a  growth.  It  is  not  the  result  of  political  decree  or 
control.   You  may  draw  all  the  lines  you  please  between  counties 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

and  states,  a  city  is  a  growth  responding  to  forces  not  at  all 
political,  quite  disregarding  political  lines.  It  is  a  growth  like 
that  of  a  crystal  responding  to  forces  inherent  in  the  atoms  that 
make  it  up. 

And  the  force  from  which  that  growth  comes  is  the  force  of 
individual  enterprise,  based  on  the  desire  for  movement,  the  de- 
sire for  a  living,  for  wealth,  for  comfort,  for  society,  all  these 
desires  existing  in  the  hearts  and  acting  on  the  minds  of  a  vast 
number  of  units.  That  is  the  great  force  of  life;  that  is  the  great 
force  of  modern  civilization,  and  that  is  the  thing  that  govern- 
ment can't  imitate.  That  is  why  the  government  could  not  run 
the  railroads.  That  is  why  the  government  can't  run  the  ship- 
ping. Because  no  Congress  and  no  President  can  imitate  or 
create  a  substitute  for  the  net  result  of  the  infinite  number  of 
forces  in  individual  human  beings. 

Those  are  the  forces  that  build  up  a  city.  The  individual 
human  beings,  in  response  to  whose  urge  cities  grow,  never 
think  about  the  conditions  that  are  to  be  created  by  the  bringing 
together  of  a  great  mass  of  other  people  like  themselves.  If  we 
build  a  house,  we  build  it  in  what  we  think  is  a  convenient  and 
a  comfortable,  pleasant  place  to  have  a  home.  A  thousand  others, 
ten  thousand,  a  hundred  thousand,  all  have  the  same  idea,  but 
nobody  thinks  about  the  water  supply;  nobody  thinks  about  the 
sewerage;  nobody  thinks  what  it  is  going  to  cost  to  deliver  coal 
there;  nobody  thinks  how  far  it  is  going  to  be  from  market;  no- 
body thinks  about  the  multitude  of  difficulties  that  are  created 
by  a  great  aggregation  of  human  beings  within  a  small  territory. 
As  a  result,  the  growth  of  the  city  is  without  any  intelligent 
thought  whatever  regarding  the  great  difficulties  that  a  city  has 
to  meet. 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

There  is  one  other  quite  important  influence  added  to  this 
incessant  reaching  out  for  homes,  and  following  the  homes  with 
stores,  with  schools,  with  hospitals,  all  without  any  thought 
about  the  fundamental  needs  of  a  city;  and  that  is  the  real  estate 
operator  in  pursuit  of  his  honorable  business.  He  gets  hold  of 
tracts  of  land  here  and  there  which  he  can  map  and  cut  up  into 
blocks  and  building  lots  and  advertise  and  sell.  He  is  the  man 
who  very  largely  determines  the  growth  of  a  city.  He  isn't  think- 
ing about  the  difficulties  the  city  will  meet.  He  is  thinking  about 
the  people  he  can  induce  to  come  and  buy  the  lots  and  build 
houses  on  them. 

Now,  growth  can  be  directed,  just  as  trees  can  be  trained  and 
pruned  and  made  to  grow  this  way  or  that;  if  they  are  wanted 
for  particular  purposes  they  can  be  adapted  to  those  purposes. 
This  project  is  to  get  an  intelligent  idea  of  how  the  growth  of 
this  city  in  the  future  may  be  directed,  with  common  and  general 
judgment  about  the  way  in  which  it  is  desirable  that  it  should 
grow,  so  that  it  will  meet  as  fully  as  possible  the  difficulties  that 
are  inseparable  from  mass  human  life.  I  think  the  project  is 
practicable.  I  think  that  the  existence  of  plans  known  to  every- 
body will  give  just  enough  direction  to  the  movement  of  the 
multitude  of  separate  impulses  to  lead  the  growth  along  the 
right  lines. 

One  of  the  distressing  things  about  this  town  is  that  archi- 
tects have  the  greatest  difficulty  in  securing  immortality  through 
their  works.  An  architect  designs  a  noble  building,  it  is  erected, 
and  in  a  few  years  somebody  comes  along  and  pulls  it  down  to 
build  something  else.  It  is  discovered  that  it  was  in  the  wrong 
place;  it  wasn't  located  with  reference  to  any  intelligent  idea 
about  how  the  city  ought  to  grow  and  was  going  to  grow.    My 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

heart  has  often  ached  to  see  buildings  destroyed  which  I  thought 
were  going  to  carry  down  to  future  generations  the  names  of 
friends  of  mine  who  had  designed  and  erected  them. 

Now  we  see  the  difficulties  from  the  lack  of  plan  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  city  in  the  past  hundred  years.  What  these  gentle- 
men are  doing  now  isn't  going  to  make  much  difference  to  most 
of  us,  but  it  is  going,  so  far  as  we  help  it,  to  pay  our  debt  to  the 
future;  it  is  going,  so  far  as  we  help  it,  to  give  to  the  future  genera- 
tions who  occupy  this  great  city  some  good  things  that  they  will 
inherit  from  us.  It  isn't  only  the  city,  it  isn't  only  the  state,  it 
is  this  great  country,  for  this  city  is  an  agency  of  the  whole  coun- 
try. The  city  exists  because  it  has  a  great  country  behind  it. 
It  doesn't  exist  for  itself.  It  lives  because  it  discharges  a  dis- 
tinct function  for  all  the  people  of  America.  Today  it  isn't 
discharging  that  function  creditably.  This  project  when  car- 
ried out,  I  think,  will  enable  it  to  render  the  service  that  is  ex- 
pected from  it,  and  in  return  for  which  incalculable  wealth  is 
poured  into  it,  and  to  deserve  the  dignity  and  the  honor  befit- 
ting the  great  Republic  for  which  it  is  the  metropolis. 

If  this  project  is  supported  and  developed  and  made  public,  if 
it  strikes  the  imagination  of  the  people  and  receives  the  support 
of  the  public  authorities  and  of  public  opinion,  we  may  believe 
that  our  children  and  our  children's  children  will  see  a  great 
metropolis  in  which  there  may  be  homes  where  children  can  see 
the  sun  and  breathe  the  air  and  grow  up  in  strength  and  beauty, 
instead  of  the  tenement  house  life  that  disgraces  our  civilization. 
The  people  living  in  the  city  give  up  all  the  beauties  of  nature,  all 
the  wonders  of  the  fields  and  the  forests  and  the  mountain  and 
the  sea;  but  they  may  see  a  city  where  men  find  life  worth  living 
among  nobly  planned  and  adequately  spaced  and  harmoniously 
related  streets  and  open  spaces  and  architectural  monuments. 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  in  the  City  of  New  York  we  never 
approach  anything  that  is  beautiful  and  noble?  We  are  always 
going  by  such  things.  There  are  many  great  and  noble  build- 
ings, noble  works  of  art,  but  we  are  always  passing  by  them. 
You  have  to  turn  your  head  to  see  them.  In  the  one  city  of 
America  that  had  a  plan,  in  the  city  for  which  Washington  secured 
the  advantage  of  that  sense  of  design  in  which  the  French  are 
so  superior,  in  the  person  of  L'Enfant,  wherever  you  go  you  have 
before  your  eyes  something  noble  and  beautiful.  Here  the  fine 
things  are  by-products,  they  are  sideshows. 

I  hope  for  our  city  in  the  future  that  the  immense  increment 
to  human  happiness,  which  comes  from  the  cultivation  of  tastes, 
may  be  gratified  and  nourished  by  laying  before  the  people, 
always,  objects  that  are  noble  and  beautiful,  that  will  ennoble 
and  beautify  character,  so  that  the  people  of  this  great  city  will 
contribute  to  the  character  of  America  not  weakness,  but  strength 
and  vigor. 

Charles  Dana  Gibson  presented  the  following  resolution : 

Resolved^  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  conference  of  men  and 
women  interested  in  the  welfare  of  New  York  and  its  vicinity, 
the  need  of  a  comprehensive  regional  Plan  of  New  York  and  its 
Environs  is  manifest. 

That  this  conference  approve  the  action  of  the  Committee 
in  undertaking  a  series  of  Studies — legal;  physical;  industrial 
and  economic;  social — looking  toward  the  formulation  of  such 
a  Plan. 

That  it  is  the  belief  of  this  conference  that  only  by  united  and 
continued  efi^ort  and  by  the  fullest  cooperation  on  the  part  of 
all  concerned  can  such  a  Plan  be  prepared  and  carried  into  eflFect. 


PLAN  OF  NEW  YORK 

Mrs.  August  Belmont: 

I  should  like  to  have  the  privilege  of  seconding  that  Resolution. 
This  whole  project  is  one  that  will  appeal  very,  very  deeply  to  all 
the  women  citizens  of  New  York.  I  feel  reasonably  sure  that  the 
Directors  will  want  the  women  to  help  with  this  City  Plan;  every 
movement  in  America  today  seems  to  desire  the  assistance  of 
women. 

Mr.  de  Forest  very  modestly  minimized  the  beauty  of  the  pro- 
ject and  laid  strong  emphasis  on  what  the  plan  would  mean  to  the 
promotion  of  health  and  the  improvement  of  order  in  the  general 
surroundings  of  the  city.  After  all,  what  could  be  more  beautiful 
than  health  ?  Order  too  has  a  beauty  of  its  own ;  therefore,  I  think 
the  conception  of  the  'city  beautified  and  beautiful'  is  the  idea 
that  will  particularly  appeal  to  the  women. 

During  the  last  few  years  we  have  heard  a  great  many  appeals 
in  New  York,  if  anyone  has  a  'cause'  they  bring  it  here.  New 
York  is  always  open-handed  and  ready  to  help  in  any  and  every 
good  project.  We  have  witnessed  the  most  marvellous  generosity 
on  the  part  of  New  Yorkers,  generosity  that  would  make  one 
proud  of  the  great  heart  of  our  city  entirely  aside  from  its  other 
qualities,  but  in  all  these  causes  for  which  appeals  have  been 
made,  not  any  has  contained  more  inspiration  than  this  one.  In 
fact,  this  is  the  only  one  that  has  seemed  essentially  for  New 
York.  Most  appeals  are  based  upon  some  tragedy — war,  with 
its  terrible  power  for  destruction;  disaster,  and  the  relief  of  suf- 
fering; but  it  is  quite  wonderful  that  this  project  has  for  its  pur- 
pose and  its  goal — beauty.  New  York  is  a  city  with  many 
natural  beauties;  it  has  great  advantages,  but  it  also  has  the  dis- 
advantages of  its  greatness.  We  have  so  many  main  streets  that 
we  lack  a  Main  Street.  We  have  so  many  interests  that  we  lack 
a  community  interest,  a  common  cause;  in  other  words,  we  lack 


AND  ITS  ENVIRONS 

community  spirit.  I  think  this  idea  of  the  City  Plan  is  the  greatest 
common  cause  for  which  all  New  Yorkers  can  unite;  but  we  must 
remember  that  no  matter  what  the  enthusiasm  and  the  ability 
may  be  of  the  men  who  are  going  to  direct  it,  the  project  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  of  success  unless  we  all  get  together  and  stand 
behind  it.  This  is  the  only  way  the  idea  can  absolutely  be  made 
real. 

New  York  has  grown  so  rapidly;  the  city  represents  little  vil- 
lages here,  and  big  interests  there.  I  would  like  to  see  us  all  gather 
round  this  plan  and  bring  a  new  and  genuine  community  feeling 
to  bear  upon  its  development.  It  is  a  great  vision,  and  we  should 
be  deeply  grateful  to  those  who  conceived  it.  Personally,  I  feel 
that  when  little  children  are  taught  their  prayers,  and  say  "God 
bless  father;  God  bless  mother,"  they  should  add  "God  bless 
the  men  and  women  who  have  vision,"  for  in  their  hands  lies  the 
future  of  the  race. 

Mr.  de  Forest  : 

The  resolution  is  unanimously  carried  and  on  the  behalf  of  the 
Sage  Foundation  I  want  to  thank  all  those  who  have  come  here 
this  evening  in  response  to  this  invitation.  It  is  a  great  encour- 
agement to  have  this  degree  of  interest  displayed.  What  we  want 
and  what  is  necessary  if  there  is  to  be  accomplishment  here  is  the 
cooperation  of  all  of  you,  suggestions  from  all  of  you  who  have 
any  constructive  suggestions  to  make,  and  cooperation  not  only 
from  those  who  are  in  this  audience  but  from  all  others  who  may 
learn  of  this  project. 


01 


